I don't think I can take it anymore.
Sam is a whiner. Constantly. Continuously. From dawn until dusk (and sometimes after, if she doesn't want to go to sleep). And I just can't take it.
It seems like everything she says right now comes out in a thin, high-pitched singsong. "I don't wanna go potty." "I'm thirsty." "I don't like it."
I don't like it either, kid. I've tried pointing out to her when she's whining. I've tried imitating the sound back to her the way she has said something to me (that works momentarily, by the way, and it gets out some of my frustration, but I've discovered it's not a long-term solution). I've tried yelling at her. I've tried ignoring it.
Nada.
The most surefire way to make her whine is, of course, to reprimand her, which is the other thing I feel like I do all day every day. She just doesn't listen to us right now; if I say walk forward, she will walk back two steps.
My previous tactic of remaining calm, not yelling and firmly but quietly telling her she has to listen to me has been blown completely out of the water. I'm now at full-scale hollering if I have to repeat myself twice. I swore I'd never do the "I'm going to count to 3" discipline tactic, but I've got to. And yes, I carry through with the punishment threat. I can't believe there isn't an imprint of Sam's butt on the time-out chair by now.
I don't like myself when she pushes me to this point. I know she doesn't like it either because the other day she pushed up the sides of my mouth and said, "Just smile at me, Mommy, OK?" I felt awful. I'm an ogre.
But I want her to learn she has to listen to me. I know she's testing her limits right now, and I try to remind myself of that, but I feel like I'm losing the battle. This past Sunday, she literally went from thing to thing to thing to thing she knows she's not allowed to do -- and I can't figure out why. She doesn't like it when she gets in trouble, but she just keeps doing it.
So I'm gonna whine here (begin nasally, high-pitched drawl): Whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhyyyyyy?? Why does she do this? How do I get her to listen to me without hating myself?
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